Michael Weir: Three points all that matter to HIbs

Plenty of people would have been expecting Hibs to lose their way a little after last week’s defeat against Rangers, so it was massively important to send out a message and get straight back to winning ways on Saturday.

It was a bit of a struggle at times but that was always likely to be the case against a Raith Rovers side who usually make it hard for us.

I expected it to be a bit flat after the disappointment of losing such a big game at Ibrox, but the main thing on Saturday was simply that we got the three points, and full credit to the players for that.

The performance, for me, was immaterial. If we’re back in the Premiership at the end of the season, no-one will remember how we played against Raith in January. The main thing is that we’ve shown once again that we won’t allow ourselves to be blown off course by a setback.

We’re just going to have to keep on winning, though, because Rangers seem to have snapped out of their little rocky patch. Every team will go through these wee peaks and troughs throughout the season and it’s important that Hibs keep any sticky spells to a minimum.

For me, our season really starts now. We’ve now got three teams separated by three points going into the second half of the season, so it’s all about consistency and grinding out as many wins as possible.

Falkirk are right in the mix, alongside ourselves and Rangers, and you’d be mad to count them out. Any team that can go on a run like they have has to be taken seriously. Rangers continue to be the team scoring the most goals, but Hibs and Falkirk are racking up the wins and all three teams look like they’re in it for the long haul.

This is an exciting time for all Hibs supporters. We’re in the thick of a title race, with a League Cup semi-final looming at the end of the month and now we’re about to kick-off our latest bid to end our Scottish Cup hoodoo.

A trip to Raith Rovers is never going to be easy, but we’ll be backed by a big travelling support and the fact we beat them in the league on Saturday and have also won at Stark’s Park recently has to give the players confidence.